System and Method for Tracking of Mobile Resources

Abstract

A system and method for tracking items or people that displays the tracking data in a graphical display. The system receives location tracking data from a tracking unit which is stored in a server or set directly to a reporting unit. The reporting unit creates a graphical display indicating how long a user has been at various locations through changes in the location identification icon such as increasing the size of a circle depending on how much time is spent at the location. The system also can use multiple different tracking technologies to create a single monitoring session to be displayed to a user while tracking an object or person or combinations tracking units.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A location monitoring system which comprises:
 a server for receiving location data from one or more location tracking devices during a monitoring session and storing the location data;   a display unit for displaying a graphical display and a map; and   a reporting device for generating the graphical display, whereby the reporting device utilizes at least one computer processor executing software code to perform steps including:
 receiving location data from the server or from the one or more location tracking devices; 
 creating monitoring session data by calculating lengths of time associated with location(s) indicated by the location data; 
 generating, on the basis of the monitoring session data, the graphical display that overlays on a map, wherein the graphical display presents a visual indicator that identifies location(s) and amount(s) of time spent at the location(s); and 
 communicating the graphical display to the display unit. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said reporting device communicates said graphical display to said display unit in near-real-time during the monitoring session. 
     
     
         3 . The system in  claim 1 , wherein the reporting device and the server are integrated into a single unit. 
     
     
         4 . The system in  claim 1 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a two-dimensional or three-dimensional location symbol for each identified location. 
     
     
         5 . The system in  claim 1 , wherein the reporting device uses location tracking data from more than one sensor, where the sensors are one or more different types, to create a single monitoring session display graphic. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the location symbol utilizes variation in one or more of color, shape and size to indicate the amount(s) of time spent at the identified location(s). 
     
     
         7 . A computer-implemented method for visually displaying the amount of time spent at one or more locations, the method comprising:
 receiving location data at a server from one or more location tracking devices during a monitoring session and storing the location data;   communicating the location data from the server to a reporting device that comprises at least one processor;   creating, using the at least one processor at the reporting device, monitoring session data by calculating one or more lengths of time associated with location(s) indicated by the location data;   generating, using the at least one processor at the reporting device, on the basis of the monitoring session data, a graphical display that overlays on a map, wherein the graphical display presents a visual indicator that identifies location(s) and amount(s) of time spent at the location(s);   communicating the graphical display from the reporting device to a display unit; and   displaying the graphical display and the map at the display unit.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein the step of communicating the graphical display from the reporting device to a display unit and the step of displaying the graphical display and the map at the display unit occur in near-real-time during the monitoring session. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein the reporting device and the server are integrated into a single unit and the step of receiving the location data at the server is controlled by the at least one processor at the reporting device. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein the at least one processor controlling the reporting device uses location tracking data from more than one sensor, where the sensors are from one or more sensor types, to create a single monitoring session display graphic. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a two-dimensional or three-dimensional location symbol for each identified location. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 11 , wherein the location symbol utilizes variation in one or more of color, shape and size to indicate the amount(s) of time spent at the identified location.